Two Faroese records and several through to finals

Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.

It turned out to be a big day for us at Gutevallen today. By the end of the day, just as yesterday, we had once again set two new Faroese records.

In the 200 metres, Margit Weihe Fríðmundsdóttir ran straight into the semi-final by finishing second in her heat. At the same time, she took a huge chunk off her own record, which stood at 27.21 seconds. In today’s sprint she became the first Faroe Islander under 27 seconds. The new record is 26.82 seconds!

Elisabet Holm Simonsen also ran a heat in the 200 metres, but it wasn’t her day. Her time of 28.56 was not enough to reach the semi-finals.

A strong finish secured Margit a direct place in the semi-final and a new Faroese record in the 200 m

Margit and Elisabet after today’s 200 m race

There were three heats in the women’s 800 metres, where we had two women taking part. We were hoping to get both Rebekka Fuglø and Oddvør Josephsen into the final, which takes place on Friday. Rebekka ran in the second heat, and it’s no exaggeration to say she was like a cat among mice. She shot off, was well ahead straight away and ran comfortably into the final. Her time was 2:15.79.

Rebekka showed formidable strength when she won her heat, the second, comfortably today

In the third and final heat we had Oddvør Josephsen, who looked as though she was having to work hard to keep up with the pace over the first 2-300 metres. But then she got a proper hold on the three leaders, and she wasn’t going to let them go. The top two were guaranteed places in the final, and when Gemma Dawkins pulled away, the three of them were left fighting for the last spot. Over the final 100 metres Oddvør showed real fighting spirit as she battled past both the runners from Gotland and Guernsey. Her time was 2:17.97, which is also a new personal best.

And so we have two women in the final on Friday!!

Oddvør Josephsen battled her way to second place and is also in the 800 m final

Then came the men’s 1,500 metres semi-finals. Julian Gregersen was one of the 20 men aiming for a place in the final. 12 were to go through from today’s semi-finals. With tactics and cool calculation, Julian took advantage of running in heat 2 and knowing the results from heat 1. In 4:12.39 he took the 11th place in the final, which takes place on Friday.

Julian tried from the start to get the pace going in the field. It worked, and seven from the second heat made it into the final

The icing on the cake came from the 4×400 team, who caught everyone off guard and won their heat convincingly. Elisabet started off by running 65 seconds. At that point the team was a few metres behind. Oddvør took over for the next 400 metres and ran under 61. She soon caught up with the others, and towards the end it was neck and neck. Then came Margit. After a mishap at the changeover for some of the other teams, Margit put the Faroe Islands in the lead. Running around 60 seconds, she brought it home safely to send Rebekka off first. When Rebekka then ran around 59 seconds, there was no one who could threaten the Faroese team, who go into Friday’s final with the second-best time.

They also set a Faroese record, slicing 10 seconds off the old record!!

The fourth Faroese record came in the 4 x 400 m relay. Oddvør, Margit, Rebekka and Elisabet are now very excited about the final on Friday

Tomorrow there are only two events on the programme. In both cases it is Margit who will be competing. First in the 200 metres semi-final, where she runs in the second heat at 12:00, and then again in the afternoon, when she goes into the triple jump final.

Today’s results mean that athletics is facing an incredibly exciting day on Friday, when we will be in two relay finals, Rebekka and Oddvør run the 800 m final, Julian runs the 1,500 final, Tórur Mortensen goes into the triple jump final and Marna Egholm runs the half marathon.